


Woke Up (With A Demon On My Lips)

by Anonymous



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drinking, Episode Related, F/F, Gen, Girls' Night, Season/Series 05, Woke Up In Vegas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29093244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Linda manages not to pass out in her quest for cocktails. If she'd known it would lead them on such a merry chase, she might not have tried so hard to stay awake.(Season 5 Episode 6: BlueBallz Coda)
Relationships: pre-Ella Lopez/Mazikeen
Kudos: 3
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Woke Up (With A Demon On My Lips)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nowrunalong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowrunalong/gifts).



“Wow,” Ella said with a groan as she covered her face with both hands, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to block the light out. Rolling carefully onto her side, she tried to get up enough to crawl without opening her eyes but quickly gave that up as also a terrible idea and let herself sprawl back onto the carpet with a miserable sound. “What the heck did I drink last night?”

The only response she got at first was an inarticulate sound of misery from across the room, shortly followed by a familiar voice from somewhere a little nearer.

“Ella? Is that you?” Chloe asked, her words blurred together with sleep.

Wrinkling her nose, Ella answered, “I don’t know right now, Decker. Ask me again when my head has stopped imploding.”

“Everybody be quiet immediately,” Linda commanded weakly from the other side of the room, but Chloe ignored her in favour of groaning and moving. Ella listened to the rustling of her getting to her feet really, really slowly, but didn’t bother trying to join her. It wasn’t until a cool hand pressed against her cheek and another tried to roll her over that she was game to even open her eyes again.

“Please, don’t ask me to get up. I really totally can’t,” Ella muttered sadly, throwing an arm across her face.

Chloe just sighed. “Alright, stay here. I’m going to try and find us some water or something. Maybe some advil.” More rustling followed, until Chloe asked cautiously, “um, guys, do either of you see a bag near you? Or like… your phones? Or anything, anything at all, that looks like it belongs to us?”

“Nope,” Ella answered, before she sighed and gave into the guilt. Squinting a little against the light, she looking around at the areas of carpet she could see without moving too far and peered under the bed next to her. “Okay, really nope, there’s nothing under here.”

Linda only made another inarticulate miserable noise followed by a faint thwap, like she’d slapped her hand against something.

“Okay, this might be a problem. Do either of you remember where we are?”

“In Hell, probably,” Linda said, her voice sounding oddly muffled.

Frowning, Ella levered herself up by holding onto the mattress above her head. Once she cleared the top of the bed, she realised Linda was in a heap on the other bed in the room - and she was pressing a pillow down over her face with what looked like great determination.

A few minutes later, Chloe’s hand was back, lifting Ella’s forehead off the mattress as she held a glass to her lips. After a bit of fumbling, Ella managed to wrap her hands around it without falling back down and Chloe left her to it. She even didn’t try to remove Linda’s pillow though, leaving her glass of water on the bedside table next to her.

“So we have no stuff and no idea of where we are. I don’t even have my badge on me anymore. Ella, do you have any ID? What did we _do_ last night?”

“I think I remember something. This could be my fault. Maybe… maybe just a little bit,” Linda said, visibly cringing as she removed the pillow.

_“We need to keep going,” Linda had yelled in Ella’s face, making Chloe wince and Maze laugh._

_Ella had rubbed at her ear for a moment before replying. “Um, the music’s been turned off, Linda,” she tried to point out helpfully. “You don’t need to yell anymore.”_

_“I don’t think that’s going to-,” Chloe’d started to say, reaching for Ella’s arm too late in a bid to stop her wasting her time._

_“That’s why we need to keep going! To somewhere that still has music - and cocktails! I really still need cocktails. Really. Like, really really.”_

_Maze had cackled. “You’re totally wasted.”_

_“Oh, um, okay. That’s- I can respect the desire to keep the party alive,” Ella had replied thoughtfully, her gaze fixed on the other side of the room as her voice trailed off._

_Linda had tottered a few inches closer, flinging an arm around Ella’s shoulder and trying to peer in the same direction; there wasn’t much to see though. Just some Lux customers loitering about and watching the action as a journalist questioned them. Ella had turned away before Linda could ask what she was looking at though, shaking her head and frowning._

_Halting a passing technician by grabbing their shoulder, Ella had handed them everything in her hands with a determined look on her face. “Sorry but my girls need me, buddy. Alright, now I’m ready. Guys, shall we?”_

_Chloe had dropped her face into an open palm. “I don’t think- we have statements to take, and, and… things to do. This was a sting, not a tribe night.”_

_“Call Lucifer, tell him to do it. He owes me,” Maze’d replied, already looping her arm through Chloe’s and pulling hard in the direction of the door._

“- but Lucifer didn’t answer and neither did Dan, so we all hustled on down the street without you to keep getting our drink on while you took statements and handed everything over to… somebody. My memory gets a little fuzzier after that. I presume you must have found someone from somewhere to take over, because you turned up to join us eventually.”

Chloe sighed. “I did? But that still doesn’t-”

“Explain how you ended up in a hotel room with us? No, no it doesn’t. Ella, what do you remember?”

“Nada,” Ella groaned sadly from her spot still half on the floor.

“Me either, which is odd,” Chloe said. “We should at least remember something like Linda does, but the last thing I recall is… oh, taking down the perp! That’s it, though, that’s the last thing.”

Chloe stood there for a moment in silence, one hand pressed to her temple as she tried to think.

“We need to leave here and try to retrace our steps,” she said after a long pause.

Linda just pulled the pillow over her face again.

Ella drained the rest of her water with grim determination and started to struggle the rest of the way to her feet. “Tell me there’s at least a complimentary comb or something in that bathroom,” she said, lips pressed into a thin line as she tried not to heave. “This is going to take me a minute.”

It actually ended up taking a ribbon ripped from the inner hem of Ella’s dress, the extra elastic from underneath Linda’s fuzzy scrunchie, and three scalding showers, but eventually they were ready. None of them were exactly happy to still be wearing their grimy club clothes, but they weren’t letting that slow them down. Much.

Until Ella stopped dead in the doorway as soon as they tried to leave. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, _no_.”

“Ella, what’s wrong?” Chloe asked from behind her, hooking her chin over Ella’s shoulder to try and figure out what she was looking at it. It was just an unremarkable and empty hallway though, even if it was equally as glitzy as the room they’d woken up in.

“We’re in Vegas,” Ella replied in a horror-struck tone.

“We- how can you tell?” Chloe asked, just as Linda started chanting ‘of course we are’ to herself in a resigned sort of way.

“Just trust me,” Ella said, trying to back up and only succeeding at stepping on Chloe’s toes. “I _know_ Vegas. I know way, waaay too much about Vegas.”

Finally shuffling a little to the side, Chloe stepped out around her and into the hall to look up and down it as Ella collapsed on the floor by Linda’s feet.

“I mean, at least it’s kind of good news, right?” Linda asked, brow furrowed as she patted Ella on the head absently. “We don’t know where our phones or our purses are, or our… anything, really. But now we know where we are! It’s a start, right? A start has to be a good thing.”

“Nope, it is definitely not good news. Vegas is _never_ good news,” Ella insisted to the carpet, already curled in a ball with her knees up and her head propped in her hands.

“Oh, look. That looks like a room key in that thing on the wall,” Linda said, turning away from Ella for a moment before coming back with a piece of plastic in her hand. “We don’t have much but we now have a key to a room in a Vegas hotel. Or possibly a casino. A hotel casino. That is definitely a start.”

“Right,” Chloe said slowly, hands on her hips and nodding. “It is, it’s a great start. Good job Linda. Come on, Ella, we need to go ask reception if they know how we ended up in here,” she continued, voice filled with new purpose as she tugged a protesting Ella to her feet and the rest of the way out the door. “All we need to do is ask the right questions, maybe get a look at some video footage, and I bet we’ll figure this right out.”

Pocketing the key, Linda closed the door behind them. “Um, not to be a buzzkill, but how are you planning to get a Las Vegas hotel to share their security footage with you if you don’t have your badge.”

Chloe halted mid-step, looking uncertain for a moment before shaking her head. “I’ll figure something out. We got this.”

“Yeah, we do,” Ella said with a marked lack of enthusiasm, sounding deeply unconvinced as she waved a victory fist in the air half-heartedly and let Chloe drag her into an elevator.

*

“Good morning,” Chloe said, returning the receptionists greeting politely as she tried not to wince at the volume and cheer in his voice. “We were up in room…,” she started to say, then stopped, blinking.

“372,” Linda chimed in.

“Right, 372,” Chloe continued, shooting Linda a grateful smile and pressing her hand a little harder against her throbbing temple. The man behind the counter just looked faintly amused as he started tapping away at his computer. “And we were just wondering-”

“Ah, Ms. Smith is it?”

“Smith, right. Yes. That’s… not me, no,” Chloe answered on autopilot, before stopping herself. “Um,” she said, dragging the word out as she blinked at the receptionist for a long moment before glancing down at his name tag. “Look, Brent-”

Beginning to look faintly concerned now, Brent opened his mouth to reply but Linda interrupted them both by groaning and dropping her head against the counter with an audible thump.

“Is the first name on the room Mazikeen?” Linda asked, voice muffled.

Brent’s face went blanker still as he checked his computer screen, then he relaxed.

“It was Maze,” Chloe agreed with a groan before he could verbally confirm anything. “Of course it was. How did she even get all three of us up there alone- you know what, never mind, forget I asked. Did Mazikeen happen to leave any messages here for us?”

“No messages, I’m afraid. But Ms. Smith did leave instructions that her guests are allowed to charge to the room with no restrictions,” he said, brightening further. “Our breakfast buffet is still being served if you were hoping for a meal? Or our concierge can also assist you with locating anything else that you might need.”

Ella lit up. “Clothes! Preferably clean ones,” she said eagerly, beaming when the receptionist’s eyebrows flew up.

“Food sounds _wonderful_ ,” Linda said, finally lifting her head again.

Quickly they borrowed a pen and made a list of what they needed before asking for directions to the nearest buffet.

“Comfortable clothes, nothing fancy or impractical,” Chloe instructed the nodding receptionist for the third time as she added her clothing and shoe sizes to the end of the list. Linda already had a firm grip on her arm, ready to pull her away in search of breakfast the instant she put the pen down.

Ella was already way ahead of them both though. By the time they’d caught up with her, she had claimed them a table and was gratefully accepting three juices and coffees on their behalf.

“Oh, sweet, sweet sugar,” she groaned as they joined her. “My head is still thumping like you would not believe.”

“You might be surprised- oh, hey, there’s a photo in my pocket,” Linda replied blandly after a spot of wriggling around to try and find a comfortable sitting position in her tiny skirt. She frowned and held the photo up for the others to see, still tugging on her hem with her other hand.

Chloe stared at her in dismay before snatching it away from her. “And of course you didn’t notice it earlier- wait, he looks familiar. Does he look familiar to you two? Why do I recognise him-"

“Oh, oh, I saw him at Lux last night!” Ella cried, interrupting the others.

“Lux? Then why do we have a photo of him here with us when we’re in Vegas?”

“Maybe we found the photo before we left Los Angeles,” Linda hissed excitedly, leaning in towards the others. “Maybe it’s a lead!”

Chloe’s brow furrowed. “You remember us making plans to party, Linda. Not chase down a new lead. I don’t even have any other open cases right now, anyway.”

“Does Maze?” Ella asked, twirling the straw from her juice idly between her fingers. “What?” she asked when Chloe turned her frown at her. “I mean, for one of her bounties. She is still doing that, right? She stopped consulting when Lucifer came back, so I just figured….”

“I’m not sure,” Chloe replied slowly. “I haven’t seen her bringing many people into the station lately. Although she’s still keeping up with her rent so she must be doing something.”

“That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bounty money,” Linda interjected absently, before drawing her fingers across her lips in a zipping motion when Chloe raised a hand to stop her from talking.

“You absolutely cannot tell me whatever it is you were about to tell me. Or Ella.”

Ella made a throaty sound of amusement. “Maybe you can’t keep a secret, Decker, but don’t drag me into it. Speaking of illegal acts, I’m about to go abscond with every single food item on display over there. Excuse me, ladies.”

“She has a point, even if she doesn’t realise it. Maze is a demon. If this is her photo, maybe there’s something more sinister than alcohol behind our memory loss,” Chloe said, smoothing the photo out against the table and examining it again.

Linda just stared at the worried frown beginning to form between Chloe’s eyebrows for a long moment, before reaching over and poking it. “Nope, I’m pretty certain I’m just garden variety hungover right now. Nothing angelic going on in here.”

“Um, guys?” Ella said, returning to the table moments later and making Linda blanch. Ella wasn’t acting like she’d overheard anything though. Instead she had a folded newspaper clutched tightly in her hand - not a plate, but she didn’t give them a chance to ask what had happened to her breakfast plans before she dropped the paper in between them, front page side up. “We’ve been in Vegas for more than one night.”

*

It took Linda’s steadfast refusal to entertain anybody’s desire to panic and a few long minutes of Chloe breathing deeply while pinching the bridge of her nose before they convinced Ella to return to the buffet.

“We should at least ask to use the phone at reception and call the station-"

“After food,” Linda insisted again, pushing Chloe back down hard by the shoulders when she tried to stand. “Everything can wait until after food. None of us even remember when we last ate.”

Luckily, Ella thought to bring back enough food for all three of them.

“Good, you’re alive,” Maze said suddenly from behind them after Chloe had taken a few bites and begun to make noises about phones again.

She dropped into one of the empty chairs beside Linda who let out a shriek, one that quickly turned into a sound of complaint after she startled and jostled her head. Maze just quirked an eyebrow as she watched Linda sink back in her seat and begin to swear heartily.

“You’re all hungover as fuck, aren’t you,” Maze observed with amusement.

“What gave us away?” Chloe asked, deadpan, then held up a hand when Ella opened her mouth. “Don’t answer that, Ella. Maze, where the hell have you been? And how the hell did we end up in Vegas?”

Maze’s other eyebrow flew up to join the first, her expression turning flinty.

“I just-,” Chloe continued a little more hesitantly. Ella started shifting awkwardly across the table when Maze continued to stare at them silently, looking unimpressed. “I don’t mean to snap. It’s just that we woke up alone and with no idea of where we were or where _you_ were, or even that you were here with us in the first place! It would have been nice not to have to worry about all of that - and do you have any idea where our stuff is or how we got here? We have no phones, or cash, or anything to help us get home. How did you even have a room booked here?”

“Jeez, you guys really can’t hold your alcohol, huh. Here, if they’re so important,” Maze finally answered, her blank look shifting effortlessly back into a smirk as she dug three phones out of her pockets and threw them carelessly into the centre of the table. “And I put the room on one of Lucifer’s cards when I realised you were all too hammered to keep going. He probably hasn’t even noticed yet.”

Despite their collective grogginess, Ella was the first one to get her phone back in her hand. Quickly she switched it on and it promptly started dinging over and over with new messages being received.

“I have at least ten, wait, eleven texts and a bunch of voicemails from Lucifer. Or someone claiming to be Lucifer, the number looks different. They’re all asking where you went after Lux though, Decker, so it’s probably him,” Ella groaned as she scrolled furiously. “Oh man, Dan is so mad that we left him alone with all the paperwork. Did we not even tell somebody that we were leaving town?”

Maze leant to the side, away from Ella and closer to Chloe and Linda. “Decker and Lopez also got whammied by a celestial thing,” she muttered into Linda’s ear, before raising her voice again so Ella could hear and chirpily informing her that, “you told me!”

“They got _what_?” Linda asked, eyes widening as she put her own phone down without switching it on at all.

Waving a hand carelessly, Maze sprawled out and kicked her feet up on the table.

“I took care of it, no big. I’m pretty sure you’ve just become a lightweight since you had the kid, Linda,” she said, her voice back to normal levels.

Luckily, Ella was still too engrossed in her phone to notice much. Chloe and Linda both stared at Maze for a long time though.

“What?” Maze asked, shrugging when Chloe asked in a hiss what exactly she meant by that. “It’s not like you got roofied or something, and I got you all up to a room before you passed out anyway, all safe and sound. The memory thing only kicks in after you fall asleep. You should be thanking me that you didn’t wake up somewhere less comfortable, instead of freaking out about it.”

“Hmm? Yes, thank you for keeping my phone safe, Maze,” Ella said distractedly, looking up briefly to beam at her as she pushed back her seat.

Maze’s expression softened a touch when she turned to look at Ella. “See? Somebody knows when to be grateful,” she said to Linda and Chloe triumphantly.

Ella shook her head, lips twitching. “Right, well, I’m off to take a second run at getting some decent coffee.”

They all watched her for a minute as she weaved away slowly between the other tables. Once she'd covered a decent distance, Chloe turned around and poked Maze in the shoulder, hard. “Celestial whammy? Start explaining!”

“Also don't forget to tell us whose fault the celestial whammy thing is this time. Are we safe? Should I be calling Amenadiel?”

“Oh, yeah, it was just some guy. I noticed him let himself into Lucifer’s elevator a few nights back, didn't do anything about it then.”

“Maze,” Chloe said, half-incredulous and half-stern. “Why didn’t you say anything when you saw him, or… or stop him?!”

Maze’s lip curled as she sat up abruptly leant forward, palms flat on the table as she shrugged. “Why should I care what people might be doing with Lucifer’s stuff?” she asked, voice low and dangerous.

Chloe gaped at her for a moment, hands still spread wide in confusion. Then, after darting a quick glance at Ella to make sure she was still browsing through the food, she leaned in to hiss pointedly, “so we don’t end up in Vegas with amnesia, apparently!”

Sniffing disdainfully, Maze just sprawled back again with another careless wave of her hand. “I don’t have amnesia.”

“But I do!” Chloe snapped back.

“Yeah, because of the gem,” Maze said, already back to smirking and looking amused. “Alright, alright. It’s just this old thing meant for making mortals forget divine shit they weren’t meant to see. I didn’t even know Lucifer had it,” she finally explained when Linda said her name in a warning tone while massaging the centre of her forehead with her fingertips.

Linda’s face went slack, but it was Chloe who spoke first. “That- there’s no such- Lucifer would have said something, or- or-,” she spluttered.

Maze just gave her a look while Linda tilted her head skeptically and visibly restrained herself from speaking. “It doesn’t just make people forget divine stuff, _obviously_ , so it was ‘lost’,” she said, making quote signs with her fingers and shrugging. “No idea who unearthed it. Literally unearthed, by the way. It was buried so deep that it was practically a half-way marker to Hell. I don’t know how it ended up in Lucifer's hands, but it was and it did and here we are.”

“Why do you still have your memories then, if this guy used it on us? Did he-”

“Yeah but I’m a demon, remember? That shit doesn’t work on me.”

“But what about Linda, she-”

“Had already passed out. Didn’t take her long, frankly. I’m surprised she made it out of Lux under her own steam but she kept the party up all the way here and even past dawn. Then you were just dead weight we had to cart from place to place,” she finished, turning to Linda. “You slept on and off all afternoon and all night. Saved you from the whammy though, no point using something like that on someone who’s already unconscious.”

“Sleep deprivation is a heck of a thing,” Linda grumbled.

“So we followed him here to-”

“Nope,” Maze said, stealing a piece of toast from Chloe’s plate and making a popping sound with her lips at the end of the word. “We followed a bounty to Vegas. That dude just became a bonus problem after I recognised him in the casino.”

_“Who’s that?” Maze had asked around a mouthful of cereal, startling Chloe as she peered over Chloe’s shoulder._

_“Oh, um, it’s just from this cold case that I thought might be connected to something we were looking into. Didn’t turn out to be anything, but this caught my eye. Not sure if it’s going to pan out either so I brought it home to-”_

_“Huh. Looks like a bounty,” Maze had replied, already turning away._

_Chloe’d blinked at the open file, then turned to stare at Maze. “What bounty?”_

_Dumping her bowl in the sink, Maze had shrugged and made a non-committal noise. “One I didn’t take on. Looked boring.”_

_“Maze!” Chloe cried, shoving the file away and jumping up. “Come on, don’t hold out on me. This guy could be the only lead I have on a triple homicide cold case. I need to know what you know.”_

“…but then you got an active case and Lucifer distracted you anyway,” Maze finished in a flat tone just as Ella re-appeared without a word, apparently still in the process of inhaling her second mug of coffee.

A polite cough interrupted them before Chloe could figure out how to reply to that. Turning, they found the concierge standing behind them with two large boutique bags in hand. She took half a step back at the sight of them all turning rapidly towards her at once, before seemingly steeling herself and handing everything over.

“Clothes! Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Big Guy,” Ella crowed as she rummaged through the bags. “Sunglasses! Yes! The first second-shower is also all mine, ladies. I'm calling dibs now.”

“I don’t even care about having another shower right now. Just give me anything that will get me out of these ridiculous shoes,” Linda said, peering over Ella’s shoulder to examine the contents of the bags as well.

“There’s something you should see first. Just you, Decker,” Maze said lowly, one eye on them and another on the concierge who was already backing quickly away.

*

“Oh no,” Chloe said, stopping dead as soon as they reached the car. “Please tell me we didn’t take one of Lucifer’s expensive cars without permission.”

“No can do,” Maze said, chuckling openly as she patted the top of the car fondly. “If it’s any consolation, we picked it because it’s the fastest one he owns and you drove her like a dream all the way here.”

“It’s really not,” Chloe replied faintly.

“Oh, fine. You can probably blame me for it anyway,” Maze said with a huff.

_“This is exactly what I needed,” Ella had proclaimed loudly, holding both her arms above her head in a victory pose. “No work, no distractions, no-,” she'd hesitated, frowning, as her phone had buzzed in her hand, “no no-good terrible intimate photos of people I should not be tempted by. Just me and my girls. Perfection!”_

_Then she'd thrown her arms around Chloe and Linda’s necks. Both of them had made faintly strangled noises as she'd yanked them close, but Linda had still tried to whoop along happily with her cheer anyway._

_“Vegas, here we come! Maze, group hug,” she had said as she wriggled her fingers at Maze._

_“No way,” Maze had replied with a curl of her lip as she'd walked straight past them to the car. “I don’t do group hugs. I do call shotgun though.”_

_“Right, right, okay, time to go,” Linda had said, patting Ella’s arm a few times as she'd disentangled herself clumsily._

_Chloe had just huffed. “Maze! You can’t just-”_

_“Too late, called it, it’s mine now,” Maze had said, already settling into the seat with a smirk. “Besides, I’m the second most sober one out of all of us. You don’t want them falling all over the gearshift while you’re trying to drive."_

_Sighing, Chloe had opened her mouth to protest some more but the next moment Linda - trying to walk over to the car with Ella - had tripped and brought them both down in a pile of giggling limbs._

_“You might be right,” Chloe had admitted as she'd walked over to the driver’s seat, pausing just long enough to drag up and tip Ella and Linda into the tiny backseat._

_Maze had thrown the keys over once Chloe was in the driver’s seat and started fiddling with the dash, humming triumphantly when something clicked and the roof had begun to retract. “Hit it, Decker."_

“I don’t- no, you know what, I think I will. Besides we have bigger problems right now. We need to worry about the reason we actually came here. Maze, did you at least find any leads on the bounty suspect while we were sleeping?”

The sound of Maze’s heels clicking on concrete as she continued circling the car was Chloe’s only answer.

“Maze?” she asked again, following her around the side as Maze unlocked and opened the boot.

“Yeah, he’s here,” Maze said just as Chloe reached her side, and he was. With his eyes closed and duct tape across his mouth, wrists, and ankles, curled up in the boot was Maze’s bounty and Chloe’s suspect.

Chloe’s mouth dropped open. “Maze!” she scolded a moment later. “You can’t just keep people prisoner with duct tape in your- in Lucifer’s car!”

Maze shrugged one shoulder and slammed the trunk closed. “We needed him contained and I couldn’t exactly leave him alone in the room with you three. Besides, we’ve got bigger problems. I tracked down the guy with the gem but you made me promise not to get myself arrested and he’s somewhere that I can’t get to without either help or violence.”

“Urgh,” Chloe said, disgusted with herself even as she held out a hand. “Alright fine, but gimme your cell first. You don’t have Lucifer’s new number that Ella mentioned yet, do you? Thought not. I’m at least going to call the station and have someone else send Lucifer over here in his second fastest car. That way, at least this guy won’t have to travel back to Los Angeles in a car boot.”

Maze grinned, handing over the phone without complaint. “I knew you’d see it my way,” she said. Chloe just shot her an exasperated look as she started dialling but she didn’t bother trying to protest the point any further.

*

They discussed tactics on the way back up to the room, planning how to identify the guy with the gem as an associate of Maze’s bounty to the local cops without revealing they’d already caught the latter.

“There’s enough clothes in these bags for you to change as well if you want to, Maze. Did anyone get a good look at you earlier? Might help us sneak you back in if he spotted you already,” Chloe said as she riffled through what Ella and Linda had left for her to choose from.

Maze just snorted. “Don’t even think about it. I don’t wear pink.”

“You did the other night,” Chloe said with a cheeky smile, glancing at Maze out of the corner of her eye as she held two shirts up against her body to try and guess at the fit.

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it,” Maze said just as Ella emerged from the bathroom looking freshly scrubbed and much happier. Linda nearly knocked her down trying to get passed her. Almost as soon as the door shut again, the shower turned on and Linda’s relieved groan echoed out into the room.

“Um, so I was thinking and I maybe shouldn’t go with- I mean, Vegas and I don’t exactly mix well,” Ella started awkwardly, once they’d all stopped snickering.

Maze leaned in close with a shark-like expression. “Yeah, you told me.”

Ella frowned. “I did? Oh, of course, during the yesterday that I don’t remember.”

“Nope,” Maze said with relish and a shit-eating grin. “When you were complaining about Lucifer not answering your messages while he was gone. You told me all about how he was your Vegas buddy. So I knew exactly what to quiz you about when we got here. I have to say, Ella, you surprised me and in a good way. I didn’t expect that.”

“I _did_?” Ella asked, brow furrowed. Her expression cleared a second later and she threw her arms around a surprised and rapidly stiffening Maze. “Aw, we must have really bonded yesterday. I wish I could remember it. I’m sorry, Maze. That’s not cool of me to have forgotten our conversation like that.”

Chloe laughed as she picked a shirt and set it aside on the nearest dresser to the bathroom before throwing herself down on one of the beds to watch.

“Seriously, don’t mention it,” Maze huffed, narrowing her eyes at Chloe.

“What? Like you said, Ella’s got hidden depths,” Chloe said.

“I didn’t-,” Maze started to protest, but Linda was already reluctantly emerging and Chloe was disappearing into the bathroom for her turn before Maze could finish her complaint. Ella just squeezed Maze extra tight as Linda stopped, blinking, to watch them hugging.

“So I heard Chloe saying we have a bad guy to apprehend as you came in,” Linda said, visibly choosing to skate past the obvious question. “Wanna fill us in on the plan?”

*

Three and a half hours later found them all significantly disheveled again and standing around outside a strip club while Linda held a spinning necklace up to the sunlight and ooh’d over the way it sparkled. Uniformed officers were traipsing in and out of the club, and in the commotion the slamming of a car door went unnoticed. A familiar voice made them all swing around, though.

“Detective! Where in the name of Dad have you been? I broke every speed limit trying to get here quickly and then I still had to look all over Vegas for you,” Lucifer cried as he rushed over.

Maze pulled a face and stalked off down the sidewalk to get some much needed distance from the gushing. It took her a minute to realise she had a shadow but when she turned back, fingers twitching towards her knives, it was only Ella.

“So, about my disreputable gambling past…. I know now that it's not the only thing we talked about, Maze. My alcohol haze finally started lifting, remember?” Ella said, tapping at her head with one finger and smiling before opening her arms wide. “Bring it in again, partner.”

_“Ohhhhh,” Ella had said, really drawing out the sound as she’d nodded in sudden understanding, eyes wide._

_“What?” Maze had snapped. “What are you looking at me like that for?”_

_“It’s just- you and Eve, I didn’t realise it was so serious. Makes sense though,” Ella had answered before she trailed off meaningfully. Maze had narrowed her eyes but Ella hadn’t seemed to notice. She’d just nodded again and taken a long, thoughtful sip of her cocktail._

_“What makes sense?” Maze had finally barked. The drunk man sitting behind Ella had startled at the sound of Maze’s raised voice and half-fallen off his barstool._

_“Oh, it’s just- Eve, am I right?” Ella had answered, seemingly oblivious to the flailing that’d been happening right behind her. When Maze had just given a jerky shrug of confusion in response, frustration clear on her face, Ella had hurried to explain. “She and I shared this, like, moment at Lux once. I mean, granted, I was on all kinds of drugs - and there was that bomb and all the adrenaline and everything, but that kiss. Man, I’d have fallen totally in love with her, too. I completely get it.”_

_“I was not in love,” Maze had replied through gritted teeth._

_“Maybe, maybe not, I’m just saying that I’d totally understand if you were. Doesn’t mean you can never fall in love again now though, does it?” Ella had asked as she swayed a little closer and smiled wider when Maze’s eyes flickered down to her mouth._

Looking disgruntled, Maze shifted restlessly, flicking her eyes away as she opened her mouth to say something scathing. Ella just kept talking though, blithely unconcerned that Maze was trying to dodge her embrace.

“It’s okay, we don’t gotta hug if you don’t want to. I’ve been thinking though, and maybe you were right the other night. At Lux I mean, when you said it’s stupid of me to think that bad is all that I deserve,” she continued, dimples showing as she watched Maze closely.

Maze frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It can mean anything you want it to,” Ella said with a shrug. She bumped their shoulders together gently though and leaned over to kiss Maze on the cheek before she walked past her to join the others again - and when she looked back to find Maze still staring after her, she didn’t look away.


End file.
